All Plaxico Burress wanted to do was explain himself, but with every word, every sentence, he clued the outside world into what the Giants have been dealing with the past four years with their responsibility-challenged star receiver.

Burress was not contrite or apologetic, not angry or bitter, which is part of his charm. Burress sat out the 44-6 blowout victory over the Seahawks while serving a one-game suspension for violating team rules and stated the reason he blew off work on Sept. 22 was because he “ran into some family issues as far as taking my son to school and things like that.”

As he continued to punctuate his remarks with sentiments that he did not “have any regrets” or “lose any sleep” over the suspension, Burress inadvertently came up with a line that becomes an instant classic.

“Just like Coach said, I was suspended because I need to be more responsible,” Burress said. “I was being responsible, just not toward them.”

Figure the Giants were nodding and thinking: “Welcome to our world.”

Burress returned, ran and lifted with his teammates and met with coach Tom Coughlin, who, along with general manager Jerry Reese instituted the one-game suspension and two-week fine (later reduced to one game check, worth $117,647). Asked if Burress will regain his starting job for Monday night’s game in Cleveland, Coughlin said, “I would say right now, yes.”

It was vintage Burress during a 17-minute conference call that was equal parts entertaining and bizarre. The day after a Sept. 21 overtime victory over the Bengals, Burress never made it to Giants Stadium and never called in to explain his absence. His explanation:

“I didn’t feel any reason to explain to them what happened or why I missed because I don’t feel it’s really anybody’s business,” Burress said. “If I had a decision to make as far as my family, my son, things like that, I wouldn’t change anything about it . . . Maybe I would have put a phone call in, that probably would have been the only thing. . . . I don’t have any regrets.”

Immediately following the no-show, Burress’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said his client was attending to a family emergency. Asked if driving his young son, Elijah (born Jan. 13, 2007) to school qualified as an emergency, Burress said: “Yes it was, I felt it was, the situation I had to deal with that morning as far as my son, I made the right decision.”

Part of the reason for the suspension was Burress’ failure to have any contact with the team until later that night, despite repeated calls from the team that went unanswered. “Maybe I could have put a phone call in,” he said.

The Giants came down hard on Burress because this is a pattern of behavior they find intolerable. Reports surfaced that he has been fined 40-50 times since his arrival in 2005, a figure Burress did not contest.

“I really don’t know the amount of times, but I do know I’ve been fined quite a bit . . . and some of the demands they ask me to do I just don’t meet,” he said. “Do I have an excuse for them? No. Maybe I have a problem with time or something . . . I haven’t been able to quite put my finger on it.”

While he was away from the team, Burress spoke with only a few teammates, one of whom was Eli Manning. “I have a few guys on the team I’m close to,” he said.

Burress said he “caught the first half” of the rout of the Seahawks, as his replacement, Domenik Hixon, caught four passes for 102 yards and one touchdown in the first half.

As far as his standing with the team, he said “I definitely let them down” by not being available to play. But what about the way he’s perceived?

“I am really not concerned about being a team leader,” he said, “and I am really not concerned about the way my teammates look at me as far as me making the decisions based on my family.”